Ella Wheeler Wilcox Quotes

107 Sourced Quotes

All love that has not friendship for its base,
Is like a mansion built upon the sand.
Love, to endure life's sorrow and earth's woe,
Needs friendship's solid masonwork below.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox
So many gods, so many creeds,
So many paths that wind and wind,
While just the art of being kind
Is all the sad world needs.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Give us that grand word 'woman' once again,
And let's have done with 'lady'; one's a term
Full of fine force, strong, beautiful, and firm,
Fit for the noblest use of tongue or pen;
And one's a word for lackeys.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox
The truest greatness lies in being kind, the truest wisdom in a happy mind.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Laugh and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone;
For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox
This dream of our youth will fade out as the splendor Fades from the skies when the sun sinks to sleep.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox
It is impossible to pursue a successful literary career and follow the advice of all one's 'best friends'. I feel compelled to follow the light which my own intellect & judgement cast upon my way, rather than any one of the many conflicting rays which other minds would lend me.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Contentment comes when sought,
While Happiness pursued was never caught.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox
I am the voice of the voiceless;
Through me the dumb shall speak;
Till the deaf world's ear be made to hear
The cry of the wordless weak.
...
And I am my brother's keeper,
And I will fight his fight,
And speak the word for beast and bird,
Till the world shall set things right.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox
One of us two must sometime face existence
Alone with memories that but sharpen pain.
...
One of us two shall find all life, all beauty,
All joy on earth, a tale forever done;
Shall know henceforth that life means only duty.
O God! O God! have pity on that one!

Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Change is the watchword of progression. When
We tire of well-worn ways, we seek for new.
This restless craving in the souls of men
Spurs them to climb, and seek the mountain view.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox
The rankling wound which aches and thrills
Is dealt by hands we love.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox
I fling my past behind me like a rose,
Worn threadbare in the seams, and out of date.
I have outgrown it.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox
There is no balking Genius. Only death
Can silence it — or hinder.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox
It has always been my belief that children inherit the suppressed tendencies of their parents. A clergyman's son frequently shows abnormal tastes for the pleasures that his father denied himself.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Time loves a new lay; and the dirge he is playing
Will change for you soon to a livelier strain.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox
'Tis a curious fact that a generous act
Brings leisure and luck to a day.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Passion is what the sun feels for the earth
When harvests ripen into golden birth.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox
One ship drives east and another drives west
With the selfsame winds that blow.
'Tis the set of sails and not the gales
Which tells us the way to go.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox
There are ghosts in the room. As I sit here alone, from the dark corners there They come out of the gloom, And they stand at my side and they lean on my chair...

Ella Wheeler Wilcox
I will not doubt, though sorrows fall like rain, And troubles swarm like bees about a hive; I shall believe the heights for which I strive Are only reached by anguish and by pain; And though I groan and tremble with my crosses, I yet shall see, through my severest losses, The greater gain.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox
And however dark the skies may appear, And however souls may blunder, I tell you it all will work out clear, For good lies over and under.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox
And lo! The beautiful Opal, That rare and wondrous gem, Where the moon and sun blend into one, Is the child that was born to them.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox
There is a haunting phantom called Regret, A shadowy creature robed somewhat like woe, But fairer in the face, whom all men know By her said mien, and eyes forever wet. No heart would seek her; but once having met All take her by the hand, and to and fro They wander through those paths of long ago-- Those hallowed ways 'twere wiser to forget.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ah, lady! it is hardly what you thought it, This life of luxury and social power; You gave yourself as principal, and bought it, But God extracts the interest hour by hour.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Be careful what rubbish you toss in the tide. On outgoing billows it drifts from your sight, But back on the incoming waves it may ride And land at your threshold again before night. Be careful what rubbish you toss in the tide...

Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Better to wait and yearn, and still to wait, And die at last with unappeased desire, Than live to be the jest of such a fate, For that is my conception of hell-fire.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Talk faith. The world is better off without, Your uttered ignorance and morbid doubt.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Since Sirius crossed the Milky Way Full sixty thousand years have gone, Yet hour by hour and day by day This tireless star speeds on and on.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox
The days grow shorter, the nights grow longer,
The headstones thicken along the way;
And life grows sadder, but love grows stronger
For those who walk with us day by day.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox